Pope's sister prayed he wouldn't be picked; now she's proud, from afar

By Jose Manuel Rodriguez and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

Updated 5:35 PM ET, Mon March 18, 2013

Photos: Pope Francis14 photos

Pope Francis – Before becoming Pope Francis, he was Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires. The announcement for the selection of a new pope came on Wednesday, March 13, the first full day of the cardinals' conclave in the Sistine Chapel.

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Pope Francis – Bergoglio arrives for the congregation meeting at Synod Hall in the Vatican on March 7.

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Pope Francis – Bergoglio, right, draws the cross on the forehead of a parishioner during a Mass for Ash Wednesday, which begins the 40-day period of abstinence for Christians before the Holy Week and Easter, on February 13 at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires.

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Pope Francis – Bergoglio says a Mass in honor of the late ex-President Nestor Carlos Kirchner on October 27, 2010, in Buenos Aires.

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Pope Francis – During a Mass against trafficking in July 12, 2010, in Buenos Aires, Bergoglio speaks.

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Pope Francis – Bergoglio delivers his homily at the church of St. Cajetan in Buenos Aires on August 7, 2009.

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Pope Francis – Then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires Bergoglio is seen in Vatican City in this undated photo. He's the first non-European pope in the modern era and the first South American pope.

Pope Francis' humble beginnings

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"I told him I wanted to hug him," she said, "and he told me that we are already embracing from a distance, which is also something that I feel and that is real."

Then, the pope told her to pass along his warm greetings to the rest of the family.

"He said, 'I cannot call everyone. We are a very big family, so please send them my love. Because if I call everyone, it will empty the Vatican coffers,' " Bergoglio said.

Standing outside her house in a middle-class area about 45 minutes from Argentina's capital, she laughed Monday as she described his comments.

She said it was a sign that even now, thousands of miles away in Europe and in the highest office in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, her brother showed the same sense of humor he displayed since their childhood growing up in Argentina.

"I think that's why he became pope ... if he had to be firm in something, he was," she said. "But he was always like that, with a sense of humor."